Earth

Home. Floating in the dark, expanding space-time fabric of our universe, within one of the billions of galaxies, orbiting one of the billions of unassuming stars in the Milky Way. When on Earth I enjoy:

• Writing free verse poetry and other creative writing endeavours
• Coding for the web (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP) and terminal (C/C++)
• Playing bass guitar
• Spending time in the World of Warcraft

After my first and only Earth relationship ended, I was left with a large void in my life which desperately needed filling.

What was I to do during such a depressing and formative period?

Azeroth

In the lands of Kalimdor, The Eastern Kingdoms, from Northrend to Pandaria and indeed the Broken Isles I am many things:

• A Druid of the Claw haunted by the despair of losing the Dragon Aspects
• A dark and mysterious lone Kaldorei Hunter who has a penchant for ravens
• A Worgen Rogue who teaches at Stormwind University
• And an insane Kaldorei Priest who most certainly hears whispers and receives mind visions

My favourite place on Azeroth is the Temple of the Red Crane in the Krasarang Wilds. The Sha (Haunts of Despair) found there during Mists of Pandaria kept me company after the loss of a lover–Karen, with whom I am forever in love.

1/1/18: watched the Last Jedi. Here are my thoughts on the heart of the movie.

Kylo is drawn towards the dark side perhaps because of a flaw in his character, or maybe he was always fated to be drawn to darkness as glimpsed by Luke during his Jedi training. Whatever Luke saw, it was enough to cause fear, driving him to the Dark Side of the Force or simply some kind of Jedi Master madness. It’s clear that Kylo realizes he’s become a monster, and accepts it. He wears the First Order outfit well.

Rey, we see yelling for her parents/someone to come back when she is left alone on Jakku. She spends her days learning about the world she lives on, accepting Jakku for what it is, until she is finally introduced to the galaxy. A 少女 (shojo) story. Her story compares to even the best 少年 (shonen) anime and as an adult viewer you almost feel bad for her—for seeing the world the way she sees it. Rey’s reality is limited by rules and the desires of others. Unlike Kylo who represents more of an anarchistic way of living, Rey buys into the way life is done on Jakku.

So when these two characters meet via the Force, there’s a volatility, Rey is disgusted by Kylo’s actions (killing his own father, perhaps other things as well). Kylo in an almost prey driven way sees something he can take advantage of in Rey (or maybe I’m reading too much into it?). In my defence, the way he tries to make her feel pain about her parents, and to be her savior leaves you wondering what exactly draws them together. Maybe they both feel like they are saving each other. Hmm…

The galaxy requires order, and the First Order is powerful in this respect. The rebels are constantly on the run, out-gunned and out-numbered. However, they both (in different ways) wish to bring order to the galaxy. The first Jedi texts are gone, and instead their lessons are embodied in the relationship between Rey and Kylo.

Gaming disorder is characterized by a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour (‘digital gaming’ or ‘video-gaming’), which may be online (i.e., over the internet) or offline, manifested by: 1) impaired control over gaming (e.g., onset, frequency, intensity, duration, termination, context); 2) increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities; and 3) continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences. The behaviour pattern is of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning. The pattern of gaming behaviour may be continuous or episodic and recurrent. The gaming behaviour and other features are normally evident over a period of at least 12 months in order for a diagnosis to be assigned, although the required duration may be shortened if all diagnostic requirements are met and symptoms are severe.

1) impaired control over gaming (e.g., onset, frequency, intensity, duration, termination, context);
As opposed to impaired control over your own body; many young people go out and become inebriated and make sexual contact, even fornicate, with each other. Enjoying a digital work of art & science saves people from making costly life mistakes they will later regret. Those who attempt to run from their pasts are often running from regrets. Fight me. Duration of gaming might be the primary area to monitor.

2) increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities;
There is something to be said for hygiene and daily maintenance of your body, and excessive investment in any activity to the point of obsession/addiction can cause a deterioration in the individual’s overall physical health.

3) continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.
Not certain what negative consequences this point is referring to other than the individual’s physical health. The real world’s negative consequences (game mechanics) are much more punishing. Perhaps the individual should be employed, or in school, at all times, creating a balance between the digital and physical worlds.

“Significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning.”Impairments

Personal: most likely to occur in the area of personal hygiene and sleep.

Family: individuals are alone in their gaming rooms (often bedrooms), but their families know where they are. They are safe.

Social: individuals often game with friends, and games are written and created by large teams—teams of human beings, that (often) teach valuable lessons.

Educational: individuals might invest time in gaming, sacrificing studying time. This is definitely not good and should be monitored.

Occupational: a time investment deficit in education will lead to occupational disappointment.

The pattern of gaming behaviour may be continuous or episodic and recurrent.
Eventually, individuals learn about motivations, rewards, music, visual art, coding, and storytelling. It’s an art form that is already appreciated globally.

The gaming behaviour and other features are normally evident over a period of at least 12 months in order for a diagnosis to be assigned, although the required duration may be shortened if all diagnostic requirements are met and symptoms are severe.
Severe deterioration in personal hygiene, sleep, school performance being good indicators of a problem.

The past comes to visit every year on the 23rd and the 25th. play(“Scrooge”);
But the future is unwritten, except by those who have lived it. play(“Back to the Future”);

There’s a reason sequels have zombies in them play(“Crackdown”);, the 2nd part in a series introduces you to a new world, a world of possibilities if you have kept your torch light lit play(“Dungeons and Dragons”);.

It is your responsibility to determine what is important in this game of life, whether it be currency gathering, collecting information from NPCs, attempting to make decisions or pursuing a romantic sub-plot, the later being my case. I have made mistakes in the past, investing emotions into women when I had one who loved me. I can’t apply logic to these cases because they involved a fair bit of magic play.cast();, but I can in my defence, say that I did not touch them physically aside from making contact with one of their arms while posing for a photo. And that felt like touching a corpse.

It has me thinking, how do we rescue the future generations from romantic torment? I believe you do learn something important after having your heart broken, because you enter a phase in your life where you are learning about being alone and improving upon past mistakes. If I had any advice, I would recommend collecting information and searching for, in others, the person you desire to find play(“ICQ”);. But do not fall in to the trap of thinking you can install software on new hardware and have it run the same as before, each human being is unique and filled with memories that guide them.

Have you ever played “Broken Telephone” in school? Well, it’s a game designed by players in the real world that you will understand once you enter a level of maturity that allows you to understand the mechanics of the game of life. There are powers to collect play(“Marvel”); and people to guide. It is very difficult to make up with someone if they have been driven in to someone else’s arms play(“Rebound”);, or given up on finding love and have become a zombie corpse play(“2+”); play(“Walking Dead”);. Some people can do it, and do it successfully, and have fun, but I am not one of those individuals.

Investing your points too heavily into one area of the game makes you…well it makes you who you are. Your personal and professional life matters, in that dichotomy I believe it’s best to have a good personal life play(“RPG”); and your professional career might take a back seat, because of the torch you carry within you. Unfortunately if you make too many sacrifices in your personal life, especially when it comes to love and your body, you may have to invest elsewhere. Those are the mechanics as I see them.

Now, there are people who can have it all a great professional career and a great personal life. Yes! They do exist, but these are the rarest types of players, who have been guided and motivated properly. I know of one, a computer expert who works in the Public sector, in education. play(“Guess Who”);

TLDR; Do not trash your personal life, or your professional one, try to achieve a balance.

Lately, people have been dropping clues and hints, cards as I call them, for me and I’m not certain why I didn’t know about this game sooner.

They made a believer out of me, and I’m collecting more information every day through the internet and through social networks. Unfortunately, the data I’m able to gather is limited in nature. So far finally understanding that I am truly not alone here on this planet.

I used to wander this play(“Lonely Planet”); alone (hasn’t left the city in almost 8 years) and live a very extroverted life—not in the sense that you might think, however. To me, an extrovert is someone who is overly obsessed with others, looking at people outside themselves for guidance and role modelling. This is not the same as the dictionary definition.

It got so bad that Facebook turned into a battleground.

Now I’m realizing that, you can find anyone, anywhere, if you use the Force, play(“Star Wars);.

There is one special person I’m looking for, and I am finding her everyday. Unfortunately I can’t seem to physically locate her, not knowing whether she is in New York or Texas this time of the year. find(“Karen”); Even then, what would she think if I just showed up after so many years, and told her I still love her, and that I look for her everyday? And that when I find her, it’s the best part of my day.

I understand now, what a proposal is and what it means to believe. If only I had started saving for a ring sooner, and saved her ring size to my iCloud.

Since seeing the interior of Jordan’s Batmobile glowing blue I have been on a quest to get the best (brightest) Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights for the car… yep.

Well, turns out my dome light sports a T10 bulb so that’s what I went out and bought. You can find a large selection on eBay, but Station 28 (and one other store) at Pacific Mall has what you need immediately without having to wait for shipping.

Here are the three bulbs I purchased and tried (no performance measurements taken, just a simple qualitative comparison with a biological bias, in that, I used my eyes):

The brightest of the T10 LED lights I tried was the Controller Area Network bus (CAN bus) Wedge lights which emit a powerful glow that fills the interior of the car. But you will need some clearance to account for the length of the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) the LEDs (and other interesting hardware) are mounted on.

This is a Sudoku application for the terminal that I coded many years ago when I became interested in video game development. My friend Asim gave me tips and pointers along the way. This code exists inside a time capsule, as development froze when I was forced to play the game of life. That, is a euphemism.